Photo display panel

ABSTRACT

A one-piece panel for the display of a plurality of photos and other card-like items on a flat surface such as a refrigerator door constituted of resilient plastic sheet material into which U-shaped die cuts form numerous integral downward- and upward-pointing tabs. The tabs are made accessible for extension from their original position planar to the body of the panel by means of contiguous cutouts so that they can be used to hold in place display items whose edges are inserted under them.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the display of photos and other card-like items and, in particular, to devices for displaying a plurality of such items on a vertical flat surface such as a refrigerator.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Mounting photos and other card-like items on a refrigerator door is a common practice, usually accomplished with magnets or magnetic backing materials or tape or other adhesives. Displays thus created often end up unevenly arranged and unattractive. Also, continually straightening items that have become canted at different angles and rearranging and replacing others takes time and becomes somewhat of an effort.

What is desired is an inexpensive, inconspicuous one-piece display panel for use on a flat surface, such as a refrigerator door, on which card-like items can be simply, quickly, and easily mounted and replaced; one on which photos of all sizes can be placed virtually anywhere. Ideally, such a device should make possible flexible and maximal use of panel space, providing for various arrangements of photos of all standard dimensions, either spaced apart with narrow or wide margins or mounted edge to edge, allowing for virtually the complete covering of the panel with photos.

There are many inventions for displaying photos and other card-like items, some for stand-alone devices, some for table-top use, some for mounting such items on walls or other flat surfaces. Most include frames of one kind or another or channels or flanges or pockets, or combine two or more layers of material and/or other parts. A few are one-piece devices. The inventions discussed below are examples of prior art pertinent to my display panel.

A 1950 patent by Paul Vogel, U.S. Pat. No. 2,532,132, discloses a device relatable to my invention. It was designed primarily as a stand-alone device for mounting display items on both sides of a flat panel by means of what the inventor calls flap groups, formed by W-shaped cuts in the panel material, the two outer flaps in a group to be bent out from flush with the body of the panel in one direction, the inner flap to be bent in the opposite direction, edges of display items to be inserted under them. While intended primarily for displaying items on both sides of a panel, Vogel's device can be attached to a wall for display of items on a single side only. But once the panel is attached to a wall, the only apparent way to access flaps that are flush with the body of the panel is by partially or completely pulling the panel away from the surface to which it is attached in order to reach the flaps from behind and poke them outward.

One factor a manufacturer would have to consider in producing a device like Vogel's is the gauge of the material to be used. It is desirable that a refrigerator display panel be as inexpensive as possible; therefore, it should be made from material as thin as practicable. Since his device is designed primarily for mounting items on two sides, it has W-shaped cuts for that purpose. But W-shaped flap groups require much more cutting of panel material to accomplish the intended results than would be necessary or desirable on a very thin single-side display designed for mounting numerous items of different dimensions [on a single-side display, which could affect how thin the material used for such a panel could be and still maintain satisfactory durability].

In Vogel's device, none of the bases, flap ends opposite the tips, of the downward-pointing flaps are on the same axis as the bases of upward-pointing flaps: in a flap group, the base of the inner flap aligns with the tips of the outer flaps and, of course, vice versa. There is no way that display items could be mounted edge to edge with the items above or below them. In other words, Vogel's design would prevent economic use of panel space.

Although Vogel says flap groups are staggered to allow for variation in display item sizes, his device allows for only limited size differences. He can really only claim that it is within circumscribed spaces that items of different sizes can be mounted, according to FIG. 1 of his drawings, which shows a small display item within the space of a larger. But even within the confines of his outermost sets of flaps, only certain photo sizes will fit. For example, based on a printout of his FIG. 4 drawing, a 3½″ by 5″ high photo cannot be mounted with opposing flaps.

Prior card-holder art includes a device invented by Clare in 1906, U.S. Pat. No. 835,178. It discloses card-holding tongue triads, the tongues in a triad sharing a triangular open space contiguous to them and large enough to provide means for fingers to reach under them to bend the outer tongues out and the middle one back so they can grip cards between them. The metal tongues Clare describes as stiff, require “room for the fingers to manipulate them,” to spring them out in opposite directions. For his problem, the need for finger holes is obvious. Cutouts to access thin, very pliable plastic tabs with fingerNAILS for my device was a solution I arrived at after considering other options. My case is different.

A 1950 invention by H. H. Hachett, U.S. Pat. No. 2,513,239, is a panel for holding removable cards by means of slits in “rosettes,” Hatchett's term for integral sets of four slits. Rosettes are in a grid-like arrangement, and individual slits in rosettes retain the corners of indicia-bearing cards. Since sets of rosettes are constantly spaced, they cannot accommodate various sizes of display items. Also, given that they retain items by entrapping them in all four corners, there can be no versatility in spacial arrangements of items. That being the case, panel space cannot be maximized.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,842,882, assigned to N. Greene et al, is intended primarily for mounting x-ray films. While Greene's invention utilizes tabs to mount x-ray films, the tabs in his device are used, as are Hatchett's slits, to restrain display items both vertically and horizontally, so, similarly Greene's arrangement of tabs will not for versatile use of panel space.

A patent for a one-piece, primarily three-dimensional, display device, U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,317, invented by Strong; Finn Alexander, designed mainly for holding one or more photos in a curved position on both sides of the device, discloses the use of integral tabs to hold photos in place. However, since the tabs overlap photos on all four edges, as in the Greene invention, with the Strong device it would also be impossible to move mounted photos either laterally or vertically to make room for other photos. Additionally, photos could not be vertically or horizontally mounted edge to edge, limiting further the proportion of total panel space that could be used for display purposes. Also, a device with tab sets designed to hold, as the inventor says, “photographs or card materials of known dimension” will not accommodate photos or card materials of various dimensions or allow for their mounting in more than one orientation.

Leslie Paine's 1999 one-piece display device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,791, consists of a preferably rectangular plastic panel into which numerous clusters of curvilinear cuts serve as means for entrapping display items. The openings such cuts can create do allow for entrapment of display items in various orientations and spacings. However, mounting items by means of clusters of curvilinear cuts does not allow for as economic use of total panel space as possible. Also, while the curvilinear clusters provide for versatility in arrangement of display items, they do not facilitate the lining up or maintaining of display items in neat, straight rows, should that be desired.

As with all the other one-piece die-cut display panels I discovered which employ flaps, tabs, or slits as means for mounting display items, it appears that once Paine's panel is fastened to a wall there is no easy way to access the somewhat tab-like curved slits in it when they are flush with the body of the panel. The cut-outs at tips of tabs in my device are the result of experiments with prototypes. I found that to otherwise access tabs one would have to reach behind the panel or use a prying device [without the cutouts I could not access tabs on the exposed side of a panel fastened to a flat surface when the tabs were planar to the panel].

Other cited patents were not relied upon. They lack one or more of the physical features in my claims discussed above.

While each of the display panels I discovered in my patent searches has its own merits, nothing in the prior art I encountered or am aware of in the marketplace completely satisfies the objects I considered desirable for a refrigerator photo display panel. Therefore, these are the objects of my invention:

-   -   inexpensive to produce     -   easy to manufacture     -   inconspicuous     -   quick and easy mounting and removal of display item     -   provision for mounting of display items of various sizes     -   provision for various spacial arrangements of display items     -   economic use of display space; provision for edge-to-edge         mounting

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention is a one-piece panel for displaying photos and other card-like items on a flat surface such as a refrigerator, made of a thin transparent material into which numerous small integral U-shaped tabs are cut. It is inexpensive and easy to manufacture because it consists of only one part, can be produced with one die-cut tool, and can be made from the cheapest, practicably thinnest resilient plastic material suitable, such as 10,000ths gauge polyvinyl chloride sheets.

Since it is composed of thin transparent material, it is virtually unnoticeable. Tabs for mounting photos are spaced so as to accommodate all standard dimensions of photos commonly collectively displayed: 2½″ W by 3½″ H, 3½″ W by 2½″ H, 3½″ W by 5″ H, 5″ W by 3½″ H, 4″ W by 6″ H, 6″ W by 4″ H. With cutout areas contiguous to the tabs to allow the use of fingernails or other means to pry the tabs free from the body of the panel, slipping edges of photos under the tabs to secure them can be quick and simple. [Paragraph below merely continues this paragraph.]

Because rows of tabs are spaced one-half inch apart and dimensions of all standard photos are in multiples of one-half inch, photos of all standard dimensions can be mounted on the proposed display panel. Because downward- and upward-pointing tabs in each row of tabs have their bases along the same axis, display items can be mounted edge to edge vertically, as they can be horizontally, making it possible to cover virtually every square inch of the panel between top and bottom margins with photos.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partial front view of my display panel, showing arrangement and spacing of columns of upward-pointing and columns of downward-pointing tabs.

FIG. 2 is a partial view of the panel shown in FIG. 1, showing two photos mounted edge to edge.

FIG. 3 shows the mounting of standard-proportioned photos in both landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) orientations.

FIG. 4 shows an alternative modular embodiment of the invention in which pairs of columns of tabs pointing in one vertical direction have between them pairs of columns of tabs pointing in the opposite vertical direction.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, downward-pointing tabs are designated generally by the numeral 20, and upward-pointing tabs are designated generally by the numeral 20.′ Tabs are arranged in alternating downward- and upward-pointing columns, designated by the numerals 24 and 24′ respectively, as shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3. When extended outward from their position planar to the body of the panel, downward-pointing tabs 20 overlap top edges of display items, and upward-pointing tabs 20′ overlap bottom edges. Together, these two types of tabs hold display items in place.

As shown in FIG. 3, both the space between proximate columns of downward-pointing tabs 26 a and the space between proximate columns of upward-pointing tabs 26 b is sufficiently narrow to provide means for the horizontal edges of the narrowest standard photos to be inserted under a combination of two tabs pointing in one direction and one opposing tab pointing in the other direction.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, there are cutouts 16 in the panel at the tips of tabs to enable the accessing of tabs by fingernails or other means so they can be extended out from the body of the panel.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, tabs are arranged in rows in which downward- and upward-pointing tabs have their bases along the same axis 18, making it possible to mount display items edge to edge, one above the other.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, top and bottom edges of display item 30 are inserted under extended tabs 20 and 20′ respectively.

As shown by the items mounted edge to edge in FIG. 3 30 E, but not claimed as unique to Applicants device, the width of tabs 20 is sufficient to allow a corner of each of two horizontally adjacent display items to be held in place by the same tab.

While such large photos are not shown in these drawings, it is to be noted that the spacing of tab rows accommodates the mounting of 5×7 photos (landscape orientation) and 7×5 photos (portrait orientation), not commonly displayed on refrigerators. Also not illustrated in these drawings, but to be noted, the horizontal space between columns of downward- and upward-pointing tabs, designated in FIG. 1 as 26C, does allow, by means of single opposing tabs, for the mounting of billfold-size photos.

It should be understood that modifications of the particular embodiments of the invention here described and shown may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the claims. For example, the display panel could have a non-rectangular shape.

It should be understood that the invention is to be accorded the full breadth and scope of the claims herein. It should also be understood that, while the aim of the invention was to create a device for displaying photos and other card-like items on a refrigerator, there are other surfaces to which it could be applied, including bulletin boards, kiosks, hallway walls, and office cubicles. 

1. (canceled)
 2. The panel of claim 1 wherein once-extended said tabs not in use can be put back in place in their original positions, planar to said panel body, and held there by friction-tight contact between corresponding edges of said tabs and said panel body, thereby making space available for display items that would otherwise be obstructed by extended tabs.
 3. (canceled)
 4. (canceled)
 5. The panel of claim 4 wherein said tabs are of sufficient width to hold in place contiguous corners of two side-by-side display items, thereby providing a means for maximizing horizontal use of display space.
 6. (canceled)
 7. (canceled)
 8. A one-piece display panel for holding a plurality of photos and other card-like display items to be adhered to a flat vertical surface, such as a refrigerator, made of a substantially thin sheet of resilient plastic in which downward- and upward-pointing tabs are integrally formed by U-shaped cuts in said panel, comprising: a. cutouts in material contiguous to said tabs, making said tabs accessible for extension from the plane of said panel, whereby top and bottom edges of said display items can be inserted under said downward- and upward-pointing tabs respectively; b. arrangement of said tabs in horizontal rows, each of which consists of both downward- and upward-pointing tabs in which the bases of all tabs, both downward- and upward-pointing, are along the same axis, whereby display items can be mounted edge to edge with items above or below them anywhere there is sufficient space on said panel, thereby providing for optimal vertical use of display space and optimal choice for vertical placement of display items.
 9. The panel of claim 8 wherein proximal columns of downward-pointing tabs and proximal columns of upward-pointing tabs and proximal columns of downward- and upward-pointing tabs, by being constantly spaced apart less than the width of the narrowest commonly displayed photos, provide means for the mounting of said photos with at least three said tabs, one opposed to two, anywhere along any horizontal rows of tabs on said panel, provided that top and bottom edges of said photos do not extend beyond top and bottom margins of said panel respectively.
 10. The panel of claim 8 wherein said horizontal rows are constantly spaced one-half inch apart, whereby any commonly displayed photo of standard dimensions can be mounted anywhere within top and bottom margins of said panel where sufficient space is available, the dimensions of all standard photos being in multiples of one-half inch. 